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559240bk USA 12/6/06 9:46 pm Page 4

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra The world-renowned Buffalo Philharmonic was founded in 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the greatest concert halls in the United States. AMERICAN CLASSICS Through the decades the orchestra has grown in stature under a number of distinguished conductors, including William Steinberg, Joseph Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maximiano Valdez, Semyon Bychkov and Julius Rudel. As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Philharmonic has performed across the United States and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts, with 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra has also appeared in Milan, AARON Geneva, Zurich and Vienna, in the course of concert tours in Europe.

JoAnn Falletta COPLAND Buffalo Philharmonic Music Director JoAnn Falletta has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the brightest stars of symphonic music in America,” and by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation.” Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter conducting awards, she has also received eight consecutive awards from the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). A champion of American music, she Rodeo has presented nearly three hundred works by American composers including over seventy world premières. In addition to her post as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta is Music Director of the Virginia Symphony and Artistic Advisor to the Honolulu Symphony. In great demand as a guest conductor, she has been (Four Dance Episodes) invited to conduct many of the world’s great symphony orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the National Symphony, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as orchestras throughout Europe, in South America, South Africa and the Far East. Her growing discography, which includes some forty titles, The Red Pony (Suite) consists of recordings with the London Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony, the Long Beach Symphony, the Czech National Symphony and the Women’s Philharmonic. For Naxos she has recorded works by Kenneth Fuchs, Charles Griffes and Frederick Converse, part of a continuing programme of recordings of American music. Prairie Journal Letter from Home

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra JoAnn Falletta 8.559240 4 559240bk USA 12/6/06 9:46 pm Page 2

Aaron Copland (1900–1990) especially during a time of war. The work was Balanchine and Francis Mason write: Rodeo (subtitled The Red Pony • Prairie Journal • Letter from Home • Rodeo completed in 1944, during the peak of World War II, The Courting at Burnt Ranch) is a love story of the commissioned for a radio broadcast during the Philco American Southwest. It deals with a perennial problem: For many years Aaron Copland held an unassailable for children, consists of six scenes, with music that the Radio Hour on the new ABC network in New York. how an American girl, with the odds seemingly against position in the music of the United States of America. composer described as ‘folklike’, although the themes The broadcast première in October 1944 was conducted her, sets out to get herself a man. The girl in this case is The son of Jewish emigrants from Poland and are all original. There was a suggestion that the music by Paul Whiteman, the most celebrated ‘Pops’ and a cowgirl, a tomboy whose desperate effort to become a Lithuania, he was born in Brooklyn in 1900 into should be accompanied by a spoken narrative, to be dance orchestra conductor of the era. Marked ranch cowhand creates a problem for the cowboys and circumstances comfortable enough to allow him the delivered by Steinbeck, but the writer demurred at the Moderato, with simple warmth the score also calls for makes her the laughing-stock of the other women-folk. study of music. He took lessons from Goldmark, a idea of a version for children. phrases to be ‘Broadly sung.’ About the piece Copland Happily, by the final curtain it all turns out well, as the distinguished emigrant from Vienna, and in 1920 went K.A. noted: “It’s very sentimental, but not meant to be taken love triangle ends when the Head Wrangler goes off to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger, the too literally – I meant only to convey the emotion that into the sunset with a rancher’s daughter and the first of her American pupils. In Europe he was able to Prairie Journal was commissioned in 1936 by the might naturally be awakened in the recipient by reading Cowgirl and her Champion Roper decide to ‘get meet a number of the leading young composers of the Columbia Broadcasting System for a broadcast a letter from home.” hitched’. Shortly after the ballet’s première, Copland day and to see performances by Dyagilev’s Ballets performance by its radio orchestra. It was one of several Copland enjoyed enormous success with his pair of extracted the concert suite, excluding less than five Russes. At the same time he was feeling his way works in the network’s first American Composer ‘cowboy ballets’, Billy the Kid of 1938, and Rodeo, minutes from the original score. Along the way, the towards a characteristically American style of Commission series, with pieces commissioned from commissioned by Agnes de Mille and the Ballet Russe composer has a great deal of musical fun, quoting a composition that should be as clearly recognisable as Louis Gruenberg, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Walter de Monte Carlo in 1942. Not only did de Mille write the variety of American folk-tunes, like Sis Joe, Old Paint, the national style of the late nineteenth-century Russian Piston and William Grant Still. Copland was invited to story-line for Rodeo, she also created the choreography and Bonyparte and McLeod’s Reel in the famous Hoe composers. make a contribution, it seems, when George Gershwin and danced in the starring rôle as the Cowgirl, with Down, which gives the orchestra a sassy workout. In 1924 Copland returned to America, where his refused the commission. The original published title of Frederic Franklin as the Champion Roper and Kasimir compositions began to attract interest. At the same time Copland’s piece was Music for Radio. Composed in Kokitch as the Head Wrangler. About the ballet, George Edward Yadzinski he continued to maintain contact with musical trends in 1937, the first performance took place in July of that Europe and with expatriate American composers. He year over the Columbia network under the direction of organized important concerts of contemporary Howard Barlow. At that time listeners were invited to American music, which he did his utmost to publicise submit possible sub-titles. The winning suggestion, through his writing and lecturing, the second activity Saga of the Prairie by Miss Ruth Leonhardt of Grosse intermittently at Harvard. During the course of an Pointe, Michigan, prompted the composer to retitle the exceptionally active career he exercised a strong work. The composition is dedicated to Davidson influence over a younger generation of composers, Taylor, the then head of the Music Division of the without in any way fostering an exclusive nationalism. Columbia Broadcasting System. As for the music, His achievements won him awards of all kinds, at home Prairie Journal offers a vivid, sonic evocation that and abroad, from the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 to the Order resonates with Copland’s out-doorsy cachet. of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1970. Straightaway from the downbeat, we jostle, hustle and Copland’s final years were shadowed by increasing bustle on a western range, but in turns, twilight seems to debility. He died in 1990. reflect across the musical canvas, though with an The suite The Red Pony was taken by the composer excitement that echoes the brilliant spirit of the locale, from his score for the 1948 film of John Steinbeck’s as the mood-set swings to and fro in quaint cycles to the novel of that name. The film, starring Robert Mitchum serene close. and Myrna Loy, centres on the boy, Tom, his A work of gentle nostalgia, Letter from Home grandfather and his parents, and their life on a ranch in beautifully conjures the plaintive feelings one would California. The suite, described by Copland as a suite likely experience perhaps at a far-away army camp,

8.559240 2 3 8.559240 559240bk USA 12/6/06 9:46 pm Page 2

Aaron Copland (1900–1990) especially during a time of war. The work was Balanchine and Francis Mason write: Rodeo (subtitled The Red Pony • Prairie Journal • Letter from Home • Rodeo completed in 1944, during the peak of World War II, The Courting at Burnt Ranch) is a love story of the commissioned for a radio broadcast during the Philco American Southwest. It deals with a perennial problem: For many years Aaron Copland held an unassailable for children, consists of six scenes, with music that the Radio Hour on the new ABC network in New York. how an American girl, with the odds seemingly against position in the music of the United States of America. composer described as ‘folklike’, although the themes The broadcast première in October 1944 was conducted her, sets out to get herself a man. The girl in this case is The son of Jewish emigrants from Poland and are all original. There was a suggestion that the music by Paul Whiteman, the most celebrated ‘Pops’ and a cowgirl, a tomboy whose desperate effort to become a Lithuania, he was born in Brooklyn in 1900 into should be accompanied by a spoken narrative, to be dance orchestra conductor of the era. Marked ranch cowhand creates a problem for the cowboys and circumstances comfortable enough to allow him the delivered by Steinbeck, but the writer demurred at the Moderato, with simple warmth the score also calls for makes her the laughing-stock of the other women-folk. study of music. He took lessons from Goldmark, a idea of a version for children. phrases to be ‘Broadly sung.’ About the piece Copland Happily, by the final curtain it all turns out well, as the distinguished emigrant from Vienna, and in 1920 went K.A. noted: “It’s very sentimental, but not meant to be taken love triangle ends when the Head Wrangler goes off to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger, the too literally – I meant only to convey the emotion that into the sunset with a rancher’s daughter and the first of her American pupils. In Europe he was able to Prairie Journal was commissioned in 1936 by the might naturally be awakened in the recipient by reading Cowgirl and her Champion Roper decide to ‘get meet a number of the leading young composers of the Columbia Broadcasting System for a broadcast a letter from home.” hitched’. Shortly after the ballet’s première, Copland day and to see performances by Dyagilev’s Ballets performance by its radio orchestra. It was one of several Copland enjoyed enormous success with his pair of extracted the concert suite, excluding less than five Russes. At the same time he was feeling his way works in the network’s first American Composer ‘cowboy ballets’, Billy the Kid of 1938, and Rodeo, minutes from the original score. Along the way, the towards a characteristically American style of Commission series, with pieces commissioned from commissioned by Agnes de Mille and the Ballet Russe composer has a great deal of musical fun, quoting a composition that should be as clearly recognisable as Louis Gruenberg, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Walter de Monte Carlo in 1942. Not only did de Mille write the variety of American folk-tunes, like Sis Joe, Old Paint, the national style of the late nineteenth-century Russian Piston and William Grant Still. Copland was invited to story-line for Rodeo, she also created the choreography and Bonyparte and McLeod’s Reel in the famous Hoe composers. make a contribution, it seems, when George Gershwin and danced in the starring rôle as the Cowgirl, with Down, which gives the orchestra a sassy workout. In 1924 Copland returned to America, where his refused the commission. The original published title of Frederic Franklin as the Champion Roper and Kasimir compositions began to attract interest. At the same time Copland’s piece was Music for Radio. Composed in Kokitch as the Head Wrangler. About the ballet, George Edward Yadzinski he continued to maintain contact with musical trends in 1937, the first performance took place in July of that Europe and with expatriate American composers. He year over the Columbia network under the direction of organized important concerts of contemporary Howard Barlow. At that time listeners were invited to American music, which he did his utmost to publicise submit possible sub-titles. The winning suggestion, through his writing and lecturing, the second activity Saga of the Prairie by Miss Ruth Leonhardt of Grosse intermittently at Harvard. During the course of an Pointe, Michigan, prompted the composer to retitle the exceptionally active career he exercised a strong work. The composition is dedicated to Davidson influence over a younger generation of composers, Taylor, the then head of the Music Division of the without in any way fostering an exclusive nationalism. Columbia Broadcasting System. As for the music, His achievements won him awards of all kinds, at home Prairie Journal offers a vivid, sonic evocation that and abroad, from the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 to the Order resonates with Copland’s out-doorsy cachet. of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1970. Straightaway from the downbeat, we jostle, hustle and Copland’s final years were shadowed by increasing bustle on a western range, but in turns, twilight seems to debility. He died in 1990. reflect across the musical canvas, though with an The suite The Red Pony was taken by the composer excitement that echoes the brilliant spirit of the locale, from his score for the 1948 film of John Steinbeck’s as the mood-set swings to and fro in quaint cycles to the novel of that name. The film, starring Robert Mitchum serene close. and Myrna Loy, centres on the boy, Tom, his A work of gentle nostalgia, Letter from Home grandfather and his parents, and their life on a ranch in beautifully conjures the plaintive feelings one would California. The suite, described by Copland as a suite likely experience perhaps at a far-away army camp,

8.559240 2 3 8.559240 559240bk USA 12/6/06 9:46 pm Page 4

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra The world-renowned Buffalo Philharmonic was founded in 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the greatest concert halls in the United States. AMERICAN CLASSICS Through the decades the orchestra has grown in stature under a number of distinguished conductors, including William Steinberg, Joseph Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maximiano Valdez, Semyon Bychkov and Julius Rudel. As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Philharmonic has performed across the United States and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts, with 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra has also appeared in Milan, AARON Geneva, Zurich and Vienna, in the course of concert tours in Europe.

JoAnn Falletta COPLAND Buffalo Philharmonic Music Director JoAnn Falletta has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the brightest stars of symphonic music in America,” and by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation.” Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter conducting awards, she has also received eight consecutive awards from the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). A champion of American music, she Rodeo has presented nearly three hundred works by American composers including over seventy world premières. In addition to her post as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta is Music Director of the Virginia Symphony and Artistic Advisor to the Honolulu Symphony. In great demand as a guest conductor, she has been (Four Dance Episodes) invited to conduct many of the world’s great symphony orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the National Symphony, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as orchestras throughout Europe, in South America, South Africa and the Far East. Her growing discography, which includes some forty titles, The Red Pony (Suite) consists of recordings with the London Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony, the Long Beach Symphony, the Czech National Symphony and the Women’s Philharmonic. For Naxos she has recorded works by Kenneth Fuchs, Charles Griffes and Frederick Converse, part of a continuing programme of recordings of American music. Prairie Journal Letter from Home

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra JoAnn Falletta 8.559240 4 559240 inlay USA 12/6/06 9:54 pm Page 1 NAXOS Playing Aaron Time: 59:55 COPLAND

8.559240 (1900-1990) Made in Canada broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and & AMERICAN CLASSICS Dances from Rodeo AARON COPLAND: Four

2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. 1 Prairie Journal (1937) 10:55 This Copland collection is devoted specifically to works inspired by the Rodeo (Four Dance spacious landscape of the American Episodes) (1942) 18:54 prairie. The Suite for the 1948 film of 2 Buckaroo Holiday 7:20 John Steinbeck’s novel The Red Pony, 3 Corral Nocturne 3:41 depicts life on a ranch in California. The 4 Saturday Night Waltz 4:26 composer described the music as ‘folkish’, 5 Hoe Down 3:26 although the themes are all original. The second of Copland’s ‘cowboy ballets’, 6 Letter from Home (1944) 6:23 Rodeo, about the desperate attempts of a cowgirl to become a ranch cowhand, The Red Pony – quotes a variety of American folk-tunes, Film Music (Suite) (1948) 23:42 and includes the irrepressible Hoe Down. 7 I Morning on the Ranch 4:27 Prairie Journal offers a vivid sonic 8 II The Gift 4:35 evocation of life on a western range, while 9 III a: Dream March 2:29 Letter from Home, completed during the 0 III b: Circus Music 1:48 peak of World War II, beautifully ! IV Walk to the Bunkhouse 2:58 conjures the feelings of nostalgia one @ V Grandfather’s Story 4:15 might experience at a far-away army # VI Happy Ending 3:11 camp.

DDD Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra This recording was made possible by JoAnn Falletta the kind generosity of the Wilson and Eleanor Greatbatch family Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishing

AARON COPLAND: Four Rodeo Dances from 8.559240 Recorded at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York, USA on 31st January and 1st February, 2005 8.559240 Producer and Engineer: Tim Handley Booklet Notes: Edward Yadzinski (with introduction by Keith Anderson) Cover Image: Growing Season by Liz Tower (Photo: KC Kratt) • American flag, folk artist, 1880s. 6 36943 92402 0 NAXOS